TheMindGarage

It’s been a great few years here but now I’ve started uni it’s probably best if I left. Thanks to everyone for making my time here as awesome as it has been!

FOUR 1-2s in the first four races. This sport has a f’ing problem. Before you go “oh but this happened in the past”, not in the first four races. Not in 2016, or 2014, or 2004, 2002, 1992, 1988 or any “dominant” season you care to name. What’s more this is looking like the sixth consecutive title for Mercedes, again unprecedented. This sport is FUBAR right now and imho the only thing that will save it is a massive simplification of the cars and a total rebalancing of the prize-money. Heck, just make it equal for all the teams - those who win will benefit naturally from sponsorship and publicity.

As much as Mercedes has the right to be successful as it can, this is a sport and its aim is to put on a show. The management are utterly failing at that right now.

Split them into 10 teams - you can go for whatever you want. For example, a combination destined for mayhem:

Toxic Rivalries

#1: Sebastian Vettel & Mark Webber

#2: Lewis Hamilton & Fernando Alonso

#3: Michael Schumacher & Mika Hakkinen

#4: Aryton Senna & Alain Prost

#5: Nigel Mansell & Nelson Piquet

#6: Gilles Villeneuve & Didier Pironi

Troublemakers

#7: Max Verstappen & Romain Grosjean

#8: Pastor Maldonado & Andreas de Cesaris

Mobile Chicanes

#9: Taki Inoue & Yuji Ide

Voices of Reason

#10: Daniel Ricciardo & Stirling Moss

Who would you pick and why? And how messed-up would the resulting championship be?

Apparently they won’t be able to make testing until Wednesday at the earliest. There are also reports that their car will be two seconds slower than last years. The 2019 cars are meant to be a little slower but from testing so far it seems the times are pretty close to 2018’s. I really don’t want to see them 5 seconds off the lead, and I worry this is the beginning of the end for what was once a dominant team.

I currently have a few go-to cars but I’m looking to experiment with other options so curious what you guys like to use.

My current builds:
A-class

• Jaguar E-type - grip build with around 430hp, 1200kg and AWD
• Ford Raptor ‘17 - off-road tyres and a V8 swap (about 800hp if I remember correctly)

S1-class

• Dodge Viper ‘13 - again a grip build with 640hp, AWD and all the tyre and downforce upgrades
• Mitsubishi Lancer Evo ‘08(?) - off-road tyres, full aero and weight reduction and around 850hp

S2-class

• Ferrari F50 GT - with 850hp and 950kg it’s the grippiest S2 I’ve found that has decent power
• Ariel Atom 500 - off-road tyres, AWD and around 550hp

I’ve looked into quite a few other cars (I had a Subaru for S1 and have tried quite a few in S2 including Sesto Elemento, 918, Viper and Ultima 1020 and none feel as fast as the F50).

Over the years, F1 has seen a total of 33 world champions. Here are 33 questions, and the answer to each is a different world champion. Good luck!

1. Which driver won the championship with the most races to spare?
2. Which driver also won four championships in motorcycle racing?
3. Which driver was the first to win in a car bearing his name?
4. Which driver was the son of a driver after which a current F1 track is named?
5. Which driver won Ferrari’s first championship?
6. Which driver took the last podium for a 16-cylinder engine?
7. Which driver finished 2nd in his rookie season?
8. Which driver won their championship in the 80s despite only winning one race in that season?
9. Which driver was the last to win a championship with an inline engine?
10. Which driver won the championship with a team name that only existed for one year?
11. Which driver won their championship posthumously?
12. Which driver won the last championship for a non-British constructor in the 20th Century?
13. Which driver was the first champion whose father was also a champion?
14. Which driver was the last champion from the southern hemisphere?
15. Which driver won the most races in 3 seasons but only won the championship in one of them?
16. Which driver won exactly two championships in cars designed by Adrian Newey?
17. Which driver won a championship with four different constructors?
18. Which driver raced in F1 for more than 10 seasons after winning their last championship?
19. Which driver retired and then won the championship in the year they returned?
20. Which driver won their third championship, then stayed at the same team and came 10th?
21. Which driver died in a road car accident less than a year after winning the championship?
22. Which driver won the first championship?
23. Which driver won four championships in a row, two of which decided on the final race?
24. Which driver, son of a champion, retired after winning their own championship?
25. Which driver won three championships, all decided in Japan?
26. Which driver won an Indycar championship as well as an F1 championship in the 70s?
27. Which driver, twice F1 champion, drank orange juice instead of milk at the Indy 500?
28. Which driver won two championships in the 60s, both with 3 races to spare?
29. Which driver came second at Le Mans in 1966 before winning the F1 championship in 1967?
30. Which driver is the only to have won the Monaco GP, Indy 500 and Le Mans?
31. Which driver has had to wait the most races between victories?
32. Which driver won the championship as depicted in the movie “Rush”?
33. Which driver, American-born, won a championship with Ferrari?

The 33 champions are (in alphabetical order):
Fernando Alonso, Mario Andretti, Alberto Ascari, Jack Brabham, Jenson Button, Jim Clark, Juan Manuel Fangio, Giuseppe Farina, Emerson Fittipaldi, Damon Hill, Graham Hill, Phil Hill, Mika Hakkinen, Lewis Hamilton, Mike Hawthorne, Denny Hulme, James Hunt, Jacques Villeneuve, Alan Jones, Niki Lauda, Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet, Alain Prost, Kimi Raikkonen, Jochen Rindt, Keke Rosberg, Nico Rosberg, Jody Scheckter, Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Jackie Stewart, John Surtees, Sebastian Vettel

If you come across a company that repairs holes in hotel walls, buy shares in them.

From onboards the Force Indias seem to be really wringing out their engines. Down the straight they sound like they’re doing about 13kRPM. I rarely even hear the works Mercedes cars’ engines going that high, and in qualifying the Red Bulls were only doing about 11.5-12k.

EDIT: From a later onboard I think they’re doing even more than 13k - probably closer to 13.5k on the end of the main straight.

Insane battles at the front. Recovery drives from Verstappen and Vettel to keep the championship alive. First win for Raikkonen in 113 races. This is racing.

Welp it’s over. At least Raikkonen might be allowed to win one last time.